Council workers face industrial action ballot after pay offer rejected
The workers include refuse collection, housing workers and care staff, Unite said.
Local authority workers are to be balloted for industrial action after rejecting a pay offer.
Members of Unite, employed by local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, voted by 85% against the offer which the union said was worth £1,290 plus 2.5% on allowances.
The workers include refuse collection, housing workers and care staff.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members undertake vital frontline roles that ensure that local communities are well maintained, safe and attractive places to live, they have drawn a line in the sand and will not accept any further erosion of their pay.”
An industrial action ballot will begin on August 30 and Unite said if there is a yes vote, strikes could begin later this autumn.
Unite said local authority workers have endured more than a decade of pay freezes and below inflation pay increases which has seen their pay decline by over a quarter in real terms.